Mighty Giant (123lb) bossed his rivals with an all-the-way victory in today’s G2 Chairman’s Trophy (1600m) at Sha Tin for jockey Neil Callan and trainer Ricky Yiu.
Sent around as an 11/1 outsider against four opponents, the baldy faced chestnut defied market expectations to land the HK$4.5 million feature under a daring front-running ride from Callan, while Southern Legend (128lb) held second as More Than This (123lb) closed for third.
Callan, 42, savoured his third Chairman’s Trophy success this afternoon after the heroics of Beauty Only in 2016 and 2018 but in two days’ time (Wednesday, 7 April) will have the status of his current license reviewed when he appears before the Licensing Committee in relation to his conduct during a Stewards’ inquiry in February.
“It means a lot, everybody knows my situation but all I want to do is keep working hard, keep riding winners here in Hong Kong and the bigger winners, the better,” Callan said after notching his 21st win for the season.
The Power gelding broke evenly from gate two, rolling to the front at the 1100m mark and from there the five-year-old was never headed on his way to a gritty half-length success under a fierce Callan drive, clocking 1m 35.06s with a 22.46s final 400m.
“At the corner, I just took a little tug on him and I knew he was going to give me a kick – the kick was his winning move, he just got two lengths on them and maintained it from the 200 metre mark,” Callan said.